Suspect in Crash That Killed 3 Turns Himself In

Julio Acevedo, who for three days had eluded capture by the police, surrendered on Wednesday into the custody of plainclothes New York City detectives in the parking lot of a convenience store in Bethlehem, Pa.

There, the officers placed Mr. Acevedo under arrest, charging him with fleeing the scene of a devastating hit-and-run crash that killed a young pregnant woman, Raizy Glauber, and her husband, Nathan, who were riding in a livery cab.

After the crash, their son was delivered three months premature; he died the next day.

The surrender was arranged by a friend of Mr. Acevedo’s, Derrick Hamilton, who brought the detectives to the designated meeting spot: a Turkey Hill Minit Market, off Interstate 78.

Mr. Acevedo walked calmly to the detectives, as Mr. Hamilton watched from inside one of two unmarked police vehicles.

Discussions between Mr. Hamilton and the police began earlier that morning, said Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman. Mr. Acevedo wanted to surrender, the police were told; a time and location were chosen.

The police remained skeptical; for two days, Mr. Acevedo had expressed his intention to surrender in telephone interviews with reporters and through statements by Mr. Hamilton.

“We don’t know if this is a game or what,” the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said hours before Mr. Acevedo’s surrender.

But when the police cars arrived in Bethlehem, Mr. Acevedo, in a light blue sweatshirt and a black knit cap, was there. He approached the cars himself, Mr. Browne said, and made no statements.

It remained unclear why Mr. Acevedo was in Pennsylvania, Mr. Browne said, or when he had arrived there. Mr. Acevedo was taken to a nearby jail pending extradition to New York City.

The arrest closed the latest chapter of a tragic drama that began early Sunday morning on a street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A 2010 BMW plowed into the side of the livery cab carrying the Glaubers, who were on their way to a hospital to check on the pregnancy.

The police would identify Mr. Acevedo as the driver of the BMW. The police have said that Mr. Acevedo, who served time in prison for a 1987 killing and had a pending court date on a drunken-driving charge, was speeding at the time of the crash and that he had borrowed the BMW.

The owner of the BMW, a Bronx woman, was arrested on Sunday on charges of insurance fraud. A spokesman for the Bronx district attorney, Steven Reed, said that there was not enough evidence to pursue a case, and that the prosecution had been deferred pending further police investigation.

With the arrest of Mr. Acevedo, attention turned to what additional charges prosecutors may seek — if any — beyond a likely felony charge of fleeing the scene of an accident that resulted in death. Members of the Orthodox Jewish community to which the Glaubers belonged in Williamsburg have called for Mr. Acevedo to face stiff punishment.

The degree to which the crash has rattled the city’s Jewish community could be felt at a pre-Passover event at Police Headquarters on Wednesday. Addressing the assembled crowd of rabbis, Jewish community leaders and police officers, Mr. Kelly began his presentation with a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the crash.

At a news briefing after the event, Mr. Kelly said that police investigators were still reconstructing the crash and that additional charges would be decided by the Brooklyn district attorney.

The police could not corroborate an account provided by Mr. Acevedo that he had been speeding at the time of the accident to escape an assailant who had been shooting at him.

“There were no reports of gun shots in the area at that time,” Mr. Kelly said.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Suspect in Crash That Killed Brooklyn Couple and Child Turns Himself In. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe